Early Teenage Years 1974 till 1976

 

Travelled to London in June 1974

This is one segment of my life which I believe was one of the happiest. The early teen years, between 12 and 16 years of age. I will try to delve into my picture archives to see if I can find the years when we (my brother John and I) were actively swimming at the Swimming Club.

I recall, I was made the Boys Swim Captain as early as 1975, and we competed in the regional meets called the Sanya Samaki Swim meets with other clubs from South East Asia.

We travelled and swam in Penang, Bangkok Thailand, Jakarta Indonesia and Manila Philippines at the end of each calendar year, under the Team Captain of  Mr. Henry Chan

In June 1974, my father Geoffrey bought 2 tickets, one for me as a child (below 12 years of age) and one for himself, and we set out to Greece and England. Greece was the choice he chose because he wanted me to understand that Western civilization and the birth of Government was formed in the Greek empire, some 5000 years ago.

         Sitting Atop one of the Columns of the Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens, June 1974

We visited the Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens in June 1974. After one week, we went to London England and that is where he took this picture of me at the famous Tower Bridge. 

At the Swimming Club with John and my maternal cousins, Angela and Wendy  

(Dec 1974)

My parents joined the Singapore Swimming Club around 1972, when I was about 10 years old. My brother John (above) was 7 years old then. Those were really fun times, when we first learned to swim under the legendary coach Mr. Neo Chwee Kok (called the 'Flying Fish', as he represented Singapore under the Federation of Malaya during the 1956 Olympic Games). I was a late entry into the boys swim team, but I recall the other boys and girls game me the nickname 'Tarzan' (I'm not sure why maybe I was rather a devil prankster with a lot of mischief in me). John was given the nickname 'Teddy Bear' and these 2 nicknames stuck with us till we 'retired' from swimming sometime in  late 1979.

Bus Pass Photo 1975 (14 years of age)

We had training at least 4 to 5 times a week, most times in the evening, and when school was in the afternoon session, then we went for training in the mornings. On Sundays, we would skip Sunday School (tsk tsk) and go for waterpolo games after our training. The waterpolo games were really rough and a lot of underwater punching and scratching was going on. While this was a boy's tough game, I took it all in my stride, and came out unscathed. 

We participated in the inaugural Inter Team meet, where I was one of the 4 captains who led a co-ed team of  swimmers one week per month for 12 months. I recall my team was called the Barracuda Bravados and we won the inaugural (first of many) Team Championships. The other captains as I recall were as listed below. I was the weakest swimming captain of the 4, so I was given the first cut of choosing the swimmers for my Barracuda team. 

a) Sng Tong Hoe

b) Audrey Tan

c) Khoo Teng Cheong. 

1977 Inter Team Swim Meet.

Champions : Barracuda Bravados

Captain : Yours Truly.

I was incredibly proud of that first achievement !

I believe I have the team trophy somewhere in the recesses of my house. 

Leaf Blower - totally useless machinery when an ordinary broom sweep would do.

 

Let me tell you a secret. Some years ago, in our neighborhood, there were these 2 morning sweeper men who came and swept the roads, tied up the garbage bags and cleared any litter stuck in the drains outside our house.

They did their jobs well and I was grateful for their service. I still am. 

One day, they started using this leaf blower - the function is to dislodge any leaves and blow them into a heap before they would sweep into their garbage bags. 

The only thing was, they did their jobs daily at the crack of dawn, right outside our house at roughly 6.30 to 6.45 am. The leaf blower created a right 'racket' of a noise, and I would wake up to this mechanical maniacal sound, rather than the sweet chirping sounds of birds which would be the normal daily wake up call for me.

Now, if this sounds rather 'elitist' or 'entitled', do drop me a comment in the comment section below.

However, we (my wife and I) are rather late risers (around 7.15 to 7.30 am) and the leaf blower emnates a sound which I would call 'noise pollution' - something which would register around 75 to 80dB early in the morning.

I wrote in to NEA, and complained about this, saying we are hard working people and deserve to sleep a bit more rather than be awakened by this awful racket amounting to noise pollution and causing me distress and possibly insomnia from the time I am awakened.

Well, the authorities, listened and within a week, they asked the cleaning men to use broomsweeps for their work.

I had my small victory to this day and get to wake up at 7.15 am or another half hour every day.

There is a semblance that the authorities DO listen to public feedback, if the feedback is indeed justified for the greater good of the community. 

Kudos to the NEA.

Involution - Running Harder just to stay in the Same Place

 A close friend of mine is watching a mini series on Netflix. It shows the trials and tribulations of the younger Millenials, Gen X and Gen Z in China working so hard to get wealthy or at least stay in the same socioeconomic level as the rest of their cohort.This sense of 'involution' or compete and succeed at all costs can be very troubling for society, in my honest opinion.

Involution - an inward turning or rolling back of 

Its application in the following :

a) Mathematics :   - (-x) = x  (I can hear the audible 'ah ha's from the logical and STEM readers).

b) Biology :The shrinking or the return of the  organ back to its original size, like the shrinking of the uterus back to its original size after childbirth.

c) General : A process of becoming more complex, inward or entangled.

d) Social / economic use : Excessive internal competition where people work harder but do not proportionally get the expected or better results. This normally applies to China society today with regards to its education, the rat race, and workplace culture.

> An example sentece is this. "The company suffered from involution, with teams competing internally with each other instead of creating real growth".

This can be applied our Government of the day. In Singapore too. Are our civil service sectors operating in silos and adopting an 'hands-off' approach and going all out to boost only their performance at the expense of other social  and community responsibilities ?

500,000 Views - Humbled and Grateful

 

My readers. I am grateful and humbled that this blog of mine, called Seize the Day, where this small business owner, husband and parent of 2 grown men living in Singapore, never thought that I would see the day where the total views of this blog reached 500, 000.

Its the magic (similar to compound interest), where the longer you are in the game, the more people trust your 'brand' and flock to read whatever (rubbish erh) that comes to my mind.

I steer clear of partisan politics, religion to a large extent and just post stuff relating to my company QRA International Pte Ltd and the day to day goings on in my life.

Its like I am a scribe. I pen my thoughts at different stages in my life. How the events around me, affect my thinking and my opinion and how it affects the world around me. It is a personal diary of sorts, so my readers can delve into my world so to speak.

A curator. 

Long may this blog live and prosper in providing the readers some respite from this corner of South East Asia.

I will NEVER use ChatGPT or AI to pen my thoughts. That is sacrilege. 

It will always as long as I live, I intend it to be my gift to my future generations. They can chose to delete it when I am no longer around.  

 

How to incorporate AI into the business ?

 

This is the challenge facing all companies large and small from 2026 onwards. We need to reduce costs and the one sure way to reduce it is to jump on the bandwagon called AI and incorporate solutions into the business. 

I am all for keeping good employees as the human touch and interaction puts people more at ease than dealing with automation, at least for now.  

There will come a point, where I believe companies sink or swim if AI is not embedded into the corporate DNA.

I hope I am wrong, but that reality is becoming more apparent with each passing year.

I guess the way forward is to peer review businesses in like minded industries and see which ones incorporate AI successfully and which have not and see how well they perform.

China is ahead of the AI game, yet, it is still struggling to come to terms with robots and artificial software being part of daily life.

I guess, if dinosaurs like me, can adapt to Claude, ChatGPT and even earlier, the use of Microsoft Pilot and Microsoft Office, why not AI ?

Section Leader Course (NCO) in one of the mentally and physically toughest in the whole Armed Forces training.

 

                                                                             Circa 1994

This picture I believe was taken in 1993 I believe, this is my army Reservist training in Taiwan, I deduce that in this picture, it was rather cold hence I have a scarf around my neck.

I was conscripted into National Service December 1980, just after I turned 18 in November of that year. The days leading up to the NS call up I recall I was playing 3 nights consecutively of "Risk", a board game at my parent's house. We were accepting the inevitable, and I just wanted to enjoy the last few days of my 'freedom'.

The NS training was tough, to be honest, and I was categorized as Pes 1 or the fittest of the healthy male enlistees. 

Basic training was conducted in the old ITD or Infantry Training Depot in Mandai area. I don't recall much of it, except during the day after 30 days our parents came to visit us in camp.

Basic Training was when we 18 year olds started out as Recruits - at the very bottom rung of the soldiering industry and we had to learn the very basic military drills like physical fitness, unarmed combat, fighting with bayonets, marching (lots of it), jungle training and the Standard Obstacle Course. The encapsulation of our 12 week course can be seen in movies like From Boys to Men movie series which was very popular.

After the 12 weeks course, I was selected to go for Section Leader Course, with the outcome being an NCO or Non Commissioned Officer which in those days required further specialist training of about 6 months of rigorous training, we would earn our 2 stripes and hence be addressed as Corporal.

To break it down further, it was 3 months of Section Leader Course (no fixed vocation) and another 3 months of specialist training in the industry selected for us. In my case, after the 12 weeks SISL course, I was selected to join the Artillery military Family.

The first 12 weeks we were selected to go for the Section Leader (SISL) course, conducted in Pasir Labar Camp in West Jurong. It was really tough psychologically for me, coming from a rather cushy life as a teenager and then being thrust into the jungle life and being commandeered by tough as nuts Airborne Ranger instructors. I graduated second in class if I recall. 

The 12  week Artillery NCO training was really tough, if I recall the first 6 weeks or Basic Artillery training, we were at Kangaw Camp or the School of Artillery. That was mildly put a living hell of a training camp. Early morning rises, a lot of physical activity such as Obstacle Course, Log PT and numerous chin ups to the point of throwing up our lunch - such was the intensity and toughness of the training. We went to bed exhausted practically every night of the weekday, with only 1 night off (Saturday) IF we did all our chores and activities right.Those who did not, would be chosen for extra duty - something all of us dreaded, and then our weekend would be effectively 'burned' by doing guard duty (Saturday whole day till Sunday noon).

The second 12 weeks was even tougher at the 21 Singapore Artillery camp. This, is only reserved for the toughest enlistees, and only the artillery or commandos are at the top of the heap as far as training goes. I am sure there are other units who would vehemently disagree but its almost 40 years since those days, it doesn't matter to me or anybody who reads this does it ?

No one died during the tough training. However, I am sad to report that after we were transferred out into our units, 46 SAR, there was a tragic accident which took the life of a friend of mine, Mr. Foo Shau Yong in 1981.

Even till today, its very hard to come to terms with this event but I would say that we, the sons of Singapore, gave our blood, sweat, tears and even our lives for the security of our nation decades ago and we are proud to be associated with this milestone even decades after the years of sacrifice.

Carpe Diem. 

Independent Thinking - how to not be brainwashed.

This phrase is so important in today's world. We are bombarded daily with messaging from social media, newspapers and people around us that we can easily slip into a deranged syndrome without actually realizing that we are in a bubble or cocooned surrounded by like minded friends.

For example, racism is taught, subconsciously sometimes by our elders and the people in our community. We must always guard against subconscious messaging promoting hatred, evil, and moral superiority between races, religions and even between people between North and South. Subconscious casual racism surfaces everywhere including many social settings in Singapore. I will not go into detail because sometimes an aware person can actually distinguish what someone says to a person and what someone acts to that same person does not co-relate. 

It is a very subtle difference, and only those highly attuned to societal behavior can detect the anomaly. 

In today's world that line of doing what is right or wrong is being blurred by the continual messaging through so many social media platforms it is almost impossible to monitor all in real time.

I am by no means perfect, and I know I am fallible, and call be swung by smooth operators.

So I know my own intelligence has a limit and need outside stimuli to check and balance my world view.

Mental clarity is the way we use what we are taught, our life experiences and our exposures which will shape how we think and act.

Knowing the difference in what is a stated fact and what is assumed is crucial. However, not many people are blessed with this mind skill.